I think the only Americans in PWA are Josh Angulo and Micah Buzianis in slalom. other than them - no Americans. and even though Josh lives in USA now, he officially sails for Cabo Verde. so, Micah is the only one with a US sail number in all of PWA as far as I know.

Here's why there is little participation from US sailors:
1. You have to fund everything yourself. That's right, even if you're sponsored by Naish or JP or Gaastra or....you name it, the sponsor is NOT buying you airfare to a contest and putting you up in a hotel.
2. If you don't win, you go broke fast. Even a really really good sponsorship deal will probably only get you one set of free gear per year + $15,000. I know that even as a college student eating ramen noddles 10x/week I would have just been able to get by on $15k. That would just barely pay for rent, food, gas, and car. How do you pay to fly all your gear 1/2 way around the world + hotel + food + entry fees???? Answer: you don't.
3. USA windsurfers are not sponsored by the government. This is an oft overlooked fact, when we equate X-games, surfing competition, and the Olympics with windsurfing. Landon Donovan does not pay for anything when the US national soccer team plays in the gold cup (going on right now), because US soccer pays for it: they're our national team. Same for olympic althletes. However, Bryan Metcalf-Perez would have to pay 100% of all expenses to go whip ass in Feurtaventura. I've even heard from some other pros I know that other countries pay for their windsurfing athletes to compete internationally. We don't.
4. It's a vicious circle: In order to do well when competing in waves and freestyle in a lot of places, you need to train there to figure the place out and determine how best to ride it. With all the above mentioned money issues, how can that happen? answer: it can't._________________Kansas City

Close enough--definitely. For the various reasons listed here it is disappointing that no US sailors are competing in a major way right now, but it should be second nature to us to pull for our bro from Canada. 6th at Fuerte is no small feat. Nice work, Phil.

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